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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

10 Words That You've Probably Been Misusing

There are so many words in the English language that it’s not
surprising that the definitions for some of them have gotten mixed up
over the years. It’s possible that you’ve gone your entire life without
realizing your mistakes. I’m sure people have noticed. One day, you were
probably walking down the street, casually chatting with an old friend,
and one of these words slipped out of your mouth. Before you can move
on to your story about how Mufasa would actually make a very attractive
human, your friend stops to correct your error, and suddenly, your whole
life starts to feel like one giant lie. How long have you been using
that word incorrectly, you wonder? How many angry Facebook rants
have you ruined with your improper grammar? While I can’t give you an
answer to those questions, I can at least provide you with a list of
other tricky words so that you may never have to suffer from this
embarrassment ever again:1) TravestyWhat you may think it means: a tragedy, an unfortunate eventWhat it actually means: a mockery; a parodyThis one, I’ll admit, is my own personal error. For the longest time,
I equated travesty with tragedy, mostly because in passing, they sound
like the same word. It’s stupid, I know, but if you knew how many times I
confused fetal position with beetle position, you wouldn’t be laughing. It’s a serious problem.2) IronicWhat you may think it means: a funny coincidenceWhat it actually means: contrary to what you might expectIt’s not ironic that you bumped into a talking turtle in a sweater
vest right after you told your friend how cool it would be to bump into a
talking turtle in a sweater vest. It’s a coincidence, and believe it or
not, those two words are not related. Also, you should probably lay off
the drugs because I’m pretty sure animals shouldn’t be talking.3) PeruseWhat you may think it means: to skim or glance over somethingWhat it actually means: to review something carefully/in-depthHow this definition got completely turned on its head, I’ll never
know, but I’ll be sure never to say “I’m going to go peruse my math
textbook” ever again, just in case someone overhears and tries to hold
me to it under the real meaning.4) BemusedWhat you may think it means: amusedWhat it actually means: confusedAgain, with the whole “words sounding alike” issue. I’m starting to think I just need hearing aids. This is getting out of hand.5) CompelledWhat you may think it means: to willingly do something, to feel like you need to do somethingWhat it actually means: to be forced to do something (willingly or unwillingly)The word you’re looking for is “impelled.” I agree, it doesn’t get enough attention.6) NauseousWhat you may think it means: to feel sickWhat it actually means: to cause nauseaWhen you eat too much ice cream and declare to your mom or the
nearest adult, “I feel nauseous,” what you’re actually saying is that
you are causing people around you to feel sick. Thanks, jerk. (For the
record, “I’m nauseated” is the way to go.)7) ConversateWhat you may think it means: to hold a conversationWhat it actually means: ABSOLUTELY NOTHINGThis word is a mix of conversation and converse, and doesn’t actually
exist, like unicorns or YOUR DREAMS. (I’m kidding. Unicorns are totally
real.)8) RedundantWhat you may think it means: repetitiveWhat it actually means: superfluous, able to be cut out“Including this sentence is redundant because you already mentioned
your love of Santa Claus in the previous paragraph.” This has always
been my exposure to the word redundant, so it only makes sense that I
would think repetitive was correct. I can’t be the only one? Right?
RIGHT?9) EnormityWhat you may think it means: enormousnessWhat it actually means: extreme evilI don’t know where the “extreme evil” thing came from (probably the
Devil) but enormity makes more sense as enormousness in my mind.10) TerrificWhat you may think it means: awesome, fantasticWhat it actually means: causing terrorOkay, so “causing terror” is more of an outdated definition
but I still thought it was interesting. Maybe keep this fun fact in the
back of your mind the next time you call your favorite camper,
“Terrific Tommy,” because technically, a few decades ago, that might have been an insult. Unless instead of a camper, he’s a serial killer. In that case, go for it. as seen on facebook :)